New Award/ Dr. Özge Şensoy Has Received The TUBA-GEBİP Award

The winners of the Turkish Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist (TÜBA-GEBİP) and TÜBA-TESEP (Scientific Copyright) awards were announced. Istanbul Medipol University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Faculty Member Assoc. Prof. Özge Şensoy was entitled to receive this year’s TÜBA-GEBİP award in the field of “Natural Sciences” for her studies in the field of “Computational Physics and Structural Biology”. The awards will be presented by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a ceremony to be held at the Presidential Complex.

The project proposed by Assoc. Prof. Özge Şensoy within the scope of the award focuses on the manipulation of signaling pathways carried out by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which play a role in the communication of cells with each other. This family of receptors is targeted by approximately 40% of prescribed drugs. In some cases, these drugs cause serious side effects because drugs targeting GPCRs have the potential to activate multiple signaling pathways. Studies are being conducted on the development of ligands that can initiate only a specific signaling pathway; however, this area is still open to development.

Recently, it has been discovered that Arrestin, a protein responsible for the termination of GPCR signaling, can also selectively initiate certain signaling pathways independently of GPCRs. In this context, the project proposal aims to develop molecules that directly target Arrestin instead of GPCRs and enable the initiation of a specific signaling pathway through computational methods. The potential of these molecules will be tested with experimental studies.